PaxVax to Collaborate With NIH, DoD on Chikungunya Vaccine Development

PaxVax has teamed up with the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department to produce a commercial vaccine for the chikungunya virus.

The company said Thursday it licensed NIH’s virus-like particle vaccine technology for chikungunya and aims to fully commercialize the vaccine through the collaborative effort.

NIH currently evaluates the vaccine under a second-phase trial and PaxVax noted it plans to conduct additional clinical tests in collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to assess the feasibility of an alum adjuvant in the vaccine formulation.

Results of the first phase demonstrated that the vaccine was well tolerated and highly immunogenic and findings of the ongoing trial are due for release in the first quarter of 2017.

PaxVax added that production of the chikungunya VLP-based vaccine is possible in cells that grow in bioreactors by self-assembly of viral proteins.

“At PaxVax, we are committed to ongoing collaboration with the U.S. government for the development of a vaccine to halt the spread of this debilitating infectious disease,” said Nima Farzan, CEO and president of PaxVax.

Chikungunya has spread to 45 countries since its first local transmission in the Caribbean region in 2013 and the Pan American Health Organization has since identified more than 1.7 million suspected cases from affected areas.

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